Improvement in wash mixtures



UNITED STATES ATENT OFFICE.

STEPHEN CRANE, OF CHARLESTON, SOUTH CAROLINA.

IMPROVEMENT IN WASH MIXTURES.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 7,049, dated J anuary29, 1850; antedated January 19, 1850.

To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, STEPHEN CRANE, of Charleston, in the State of South Carolina, have inventeda certain new and useful Compound for Cleansing Cloth and Clothes, &c.; and I do hereby declare that the following is a full, clear, and exact description of the principle or character which distinguishes it from all other things before known, and of the usual manner of making, modifying, and using the same.

Various substanceshaveheretoforebeen used and are well known to chemists suited to the purpose of cleansing woven fabrics, most of which have been employed by the French clothes-cleansers, who are celebrated for their success in this branch of industry.

The several ingredients of which my compound is composed have all been long known and their properties for the purposes to which they are suited fully established. Consequently I make no claim to discovery in these particulars, but confine my claims simply to improvements by combining them in to a compound for practical purposes; and I am not aware that this compound, or one substantially the same, has ever before been assayed.

This compound consists of the following ingredients, in substantially theproportions herein stated, and mixed in the manner described, which I deem the best, or in any other way that will efi'ect the same purpose. I take five pounds of hard soap and mix it with one quart of common lye of strength to hear an egg, or a solution of potash or soda, to which I add onefourth of an ounce of pearlash, and melt them together over a fire. When these are' sufficiently melted they are removed from the fire and put into the vessel in which the compound is to be kept, and to the mixture I add one gill of ordinary spirits of hartshorn and half a pint of spirits of turpentine. Thewholeis then well stirred, and the compound is ready for use.

Although some of the ingredients are expensive, they are used in small quantities, and l have found that considering the effect produced it is cheaper than ordinary soap. 1 have found an advantageous mode of using it is to put about a pint into twenty gallons of water, with which it readily mixes, forming an excellent lather even with the hardest pump-water. The clothes are placed in this liquid and are permitted to remain therein twenty or thirty minutes.- The dirtisreadilyremovedbyslight rubbing, and the'cloth is cleaned without in- J As the properties of the several ingredients are now well known, I need not enlarge on the agency of each in the work of cleansing. Suffice it to say they all act an important part, and are indispensable to the process for which the compound is intended.

Having thus fully set forth my improved compound and its operation, Iwish it to be understood that I do not claim any of the ingredients contained therein when employed separately, as the have long been known; but

\Vhat I do claim as my invention, and for which I desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

The above described compound, consisting of soap and lye, pearlash or soda, with ammonia and spirits of turpentine, in the proportions substantially as herein set forth.

' S. CRANE.

Witnesses:

L. E. SAVAGE, WM. GREINAUGH. 

